Food prices rose 0.8 percent from January 2012, with fruit and vegetables rising 5.9 percent, leading in both percentage terms and index contribution. Kumara, apples and avocados rose.

Grocery food prices fell 1.5 percent in the year, led by a 9.4 percent drop for fresh milk, a 6 percent decline in cheese, an 18 percent fall in butter and a 2.4 percent decline for bread.

Food prices account for almost 19 percent of the consumer price index and the New Zealand dollar climbed after the figures were released.

The food prices report followed the release of the BNZ-Business New Zealand Performance of Manufacturing Index, which climbed 4.8 points to 55.2 last month, the highest since May last year and the highest for the month of January since 2007.

The kiwi dollar recently traded at 84.58 US cents from 84.11 cents before the reports were made public.

(BusinessDesk)

Featured Comment:

I guess over pricing is not helped by over taxing on everything, especially increases in fuel tax.|606385

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10 Comments & Questions

I hope this topic gets debated further. Loathe as I am to refer to trash TV I had a call to turn On Cambell on TV3 and caught up with the earlier part 'on demand'. Seems he did a fairly hard hitting comparison of a basket of food shopping NZ versus Aus and London and we were massively overpriced. I think the comparison was
NZ NZ$200.30
Aus NZ$176.37
UK NZ$128.98

I had a classic example of NZ's overpriced BS yesterday when I collected a prescription for some antibiotics.

Because these had been prescribed by a specialist the charge was $15. If they had been prescribed by my GP, however, the charge would have been $5. Same drug, same process to dispense them, same chemist even doing the same job.

But because the piece of paper I gave to the chemist was signed by a specialist and not a GP, I had to pay and extra $10!

Fascinating conundrum for the Reserve Bank. There is evidence of increasing inflation combined with a stagnant economy and rock bottom interest rates. To curb inflation they can only raise interest rates which will exaccerbate the protracted recession. What we are seeing is the problem of a Reserve Bank with only one tool; interest rates.

The other thing about the gst rise was that it became an excuse for much higher increases across the board. It provided a place to hide increases and get away with it unless there was strong competition of course.

Harmonising all the top income rates at 28% (or 25%) would go a long way to simplifying things and making everyone's lives easier, i.e. more efficient, less time-wasting .... it's a dog's breakfast, 28, 30, 33. Only something an airhead like Dunne could dream up I suspect.